Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A Hong Kong court is set to deliver its verdict on Friday in a closely watched national security case involving two prominent activists linked to the city’s annual commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, former leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, have pleaded not guilty to inciting subversion and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
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The case is the latest major trial involving Hong Kong’s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement, much of which has been dismantled under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020. Observers say the proceedings have come to symbolise concerns over freedom of expression in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Three government-vetted judges are expected to hand down the verdict at 10 am local time. For three decades, the alliance organised candlelight vigils that drew tens of thousands each year to remember those killed in the Tiananmen crackdown. The vigil was banned in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, weeks before Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong following the massive anti-government protests of 2019.
During the trial, prosecutors said the case was not political. They argued that the alliance had sought to incite others to overthrow the leadership of China’s ruling Communist Party through unlawful means, pointing to the group’s call for “ending one-party rule”, one of its core demands. Lee told the court that the phrase was not about ending the party’s leadership, but about moving towards democracy and letting people decide who leads them, and that the Communist Party should not enforce “dictatorship”. Chow, a barrister who defended herself, said “ending one-party rule” means ending a state where power is unrestricted. She also criticised what she said was the reversal of standards for judging right and wrong in the case.
In a Patreon post on Thursday, Chow said she had been taken from prison to court in handcuffs and in waist and ankle chains, and was walked by correctional service officers “like a dog”. She wrote, “Justice lives in the hearts of the people. There is no need to look up to this kind of top-down ruling, and one verdict doesn’t matter much.”
Eric Lai, a senior fellow with the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the charge of inciting subversion has commonly been used in mainland China to criminalise the acts of human rights lawyers, activists and intellectuals, including late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo. “We can see to what extent the court in Hong Kong falls into the level of the party-led judiciary in the mainland through the criminal verdict,” he said.
The trial, initially scheduled to last 75 days, moved faster than expected and concluded closing statements on its 24th day. When proceedings began in January, Albert Ho, another defendant in the case, pleaded guilty, a move that could typically lead to a reduced sentence. If Lee and Chow are convicted, they are expected to seek lighter punishment at a separate hearing and could be sentenced later alongside Ho.
Hundreds of people, and possibly thousands, were killed in the 1989 crackdown when tanks rolled into central Beijing. After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the former vigil site in Hong Kong was instead used for a carnival organised by pro-Beijing groups. Some people who tried to mark the anniversary near the site on June 4 were taken away by police. Beijing has said the 2020 security law was necessary for the city’s stability. Many leading activists, including former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, have been jailed under the law, and dozens of civil society groups have dissolved. Before the alliance voted to disband in September 2021, police sought details about the group, saying they had reasonable grounds to believe it was acting as a foreign agent. The alliance rejected the allegation and refused to cooperate. In a separate case in 2023, Chow and two other core members were each sentenced to four-and-a-half months in prison, but the trio overturned those convictions at Hong Kong’s top court in 2025. Friday’s verdict will decide the fate of Lee and Chow in one of the city’s most closely watched national security cases.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
